In 1992, after the release of "New Dragon Gate Inn", the two sides of the strait and the three places fully blossomed. The Hong Kong box office exceeded more than 20 million Hong Kong dollars, more than 9,000 Taiwan dollars in Taiwan, and sold 244 copies in the mainland, ranking first in annual copy sales, becoming another booster project for the wave of new Chinese martial arts.
In the early 1990s, with "Huang Feihong" and "Undefeated in the East", Tsui Ke re-launched Chinese martial arts kung fu movies in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and even the South Korean market, and Hong Kong filmmakers represented by Xu Ke also had a greater pattern and ambition.
Before the 1990s, Chinese martial arts films were basically shot in the studio. Occasionally shoot on location, at most just find a plot of land outside Hong Kong. Over time, it gives the audience an impression of fraud and shoddiness.
Opening up the vision pattern of martial arts films through natural scenery has become the trend of the times. In the 1990s, some tense relations improved, and Hong Kong's filming in the mainland was no longer blocked, breaking the limitation of filming in Taiwan and South Korea, ushering in the spring of film and television cooperation in the mainland of Hong Kong.
After the filming of "New Dragon Gate Inn" began, Xu Ke was responsible for shooting the interior scene in Hong Kong, while Li Huimin and Cheng Xiaodong went to Dunhuang in the mainland to shoot the exterior scene.
When Xu Ke filmed the interior scene, only a part of the interior of the inn was built at that time, and under the pressure of the progress, Huang Yuetai, the ancestor of Hong Kong film photography, filmed the interior scene of the entire inn through machine placement, framing angle, lighting masking, etc., in the case of only one room.
Xu Ke filmed the literary and martial arts dramas in the inn brilliantly. One way is Liu Xun, Wu Qihua, Xiong Xinxin and other auxiliary Dongchang eunuch group, the other road is Lin Qingxia, with Ren Shiguan, Yuan Xiangren and other composed of jianghu warriors, the third road is the inn owner's wife Maggie Cheung, Wu Zhiyuanbin played by the guy, the cook who can relieve the sheep, Diao Buyu, during which there is Also Liang Jiahui, who plays the flute alone, interspersed with the border guard Xu Jinjiang to stir up trouble.
It can be said that the scale of the story has reached the complex scene of the big fighting method.
The text drama in the inn is clearly layered, and the action scene is also a thrilling step by step. Whether it is Liu Xun pretending to be a merchant and Liang Jiahui's open and secret struggle, or Lin Qingxia and Maggie Cheung's competition for clothes, or The dark battle between Liang Jiahui and Wu Qihua in the dark room, all of them are wonderful.
The location of Dunhuang filming is mainly the big scene of the East Factory galloping on horseback at the beginning, and the two major scenes after the rescue of Zhongliang, plus the desert battle at the climax of the film.
Although the natural scenery of the mainland is magnificent, the shooting conditions and team level in the mainland at that time were not as professional as in Hong Kong, so it was more painful for the two companies to cooperate with the shooting, and the scene was often unexpected.
There is a scene where an arrow made of bamboo is thrown at Lin Qingxia's face, taking a close-up shot of the arrow blocking out. Lin Qingxia widened her eyes in order to go over and over again, but the result was a mistake, and the bamboo was directly pierced into the eyes. Lin Qingxia was in excruciating pain, and there was a white line between her black eyes, which could not be washed off with eye drops, so she had to return to Hong Kong to treat her eyes.
At the Dunhuang airport, Lin Qingxia met Shi Nansheng, who was rushing over, and the sisters hugged and cried. The final diagnosis was that the eye mask was ruptured and it was impossible to continue shooting.
Cheng Xiaodong found Shi Yi in the interior to give Lin Qingxia a stand-in, and even Lin Qingxia exclaimed that the mainland was simply too big, and there were actors who looked exactly like himself. Many of the fight scenes in the film are done by stand-ins, and because the looks are too similar, many of the frontal close-ups use Shi Yi, and the audience did not realize it at the time.
Lin Qingxia recalled that because of the eye injury at that time, she was frightened, so that she did not dare to watch the movie later. But perhaps the reason is not so simple, there are many regrets hidden in it.
What did Lin Qingxia regret?
The original version of "Dragon Gate Inn" did not have the boss lady Jin Zhiyu, and Xu Ke created this role in order to make the story more exciting. At first, the boss lady selected by Xu Ke was Lin Qingxia, on the grounds that Lin Qingxia had experience and could play the image, personality, speech and demeanor of Jin Zhiyu.
But Lin Qingxia insisted on playing the female heroine Qiu Moyan, the reason is that the oriental undefeated let her establish a style of good and evil, Lin Qingxia wants to wash away this evil atmosphere, and needs to use a woman full of righteousness to prove herself.
Xu Ke had to find Maggie Cheung, he thought that Maggie Cheung was full of modernity, just as Xu Ke also hoped that Jin Zhiyu would interpret the pungent and windy charm of modern women, and also have the true color of ancient women's heavy love and righteousness. Although many people have questioned that Maggie Cheung does not appear in many costume films and it is difficult to control gold inlaid jade, Tsui Ke has always insisted on using Maggie Cheung.
Maggie Cheung also did not live up to Xu Ke's expectations, she overwhelmed all the roles in the play, and Lin Qingxia originally rejected this role, so she somewhat regretted it.
Maggie Cheung with the role of Gold Inlaid Jade, at the same time nominated for the Academy Awards and the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress, the result was both defeated, and it was herself who won the battle, that year, Maggie Cheung won the double material with "Ruan Lingyu".
"New Dragon Gate Inn" proves Maggie Cheung's acting skills, and she also staged a good story of "left and right fighting" in the film awards.
Cheng Xiaodong's martial arts design in the film also shows extraordinary creativity.
In the final desert battle, Zhen Zidan played a major play with three protagonists, there was little time left, the actors were almost gone, and the prop truck could not arrive at the scene for a long time.
How to shoot action scenes without swords? Cheng Xiaodong's brain was wide open, he asked the smoking staff on the scene to hand over all the cigarette boxes, tear off the tin foil of the cigarette box, wrap it on a wooden stick with tape, and cooperate with the reflection of the sun to shoot the effect of the sword.
Looking at the New Dragon Gate Inn now, who could have imagined that the powerful and sparkling sword in Zhen Zidan's hand was actually a wooden stick wrapped in tin foil.
There is also how to defeat Zhen Zidan, in order to be more exciting, Cheng Xiaodong has not thought about it. If it was a sword to assassinate Cao Shaoqin, there was nothing to look at, and when there were only two days left, he suddenly thought that he had not laid the groundwork for the cook's knife technique to be magical, then simply let him come out and cut off the skin and flesh of Zhen Zidan's hands and feet.
The problem is that there is a shortage of props on the spot, what to do as a fake foot fake hand, Cheng Xiaodong asked someone to buy pig bone beef bone, made a prop, and then used fake blood to stick cotton to the bone, which made the effect of blood after the skin and flesh of the hands and feet were cut.
Nearly 30 years later, the re-brushing of "New Dragon Gate Inn" is still exciting, as if it is back to the glorious era of Hong Kong films.
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